If you've watched the Celtics this year, particulary over the last couple of months you will have come to the realization that they are not going to win a championship with the way their team is currently constituted.  When you have a team built around three stars who's respective ages are 32, 33 and 34 and all are on the downturn of their career, this is expected. 

Kevin Garnett has lost his explosion and it looks like he will be dealing with nagging knee injuries for the rest of his career.  Paul Pierce can longer carry the burden of being the primary playmaker and scorer for a championship contending team.  Ray Allen has lost his shooting touch, something that happens to jump shooters as they fail to get the same lift and elevation in their shot at the latter end of their career as they did previously.  

Of these three Ray Allen had the most value at the trade deadline with his contract expiring after this season.  There were rumors all week that the Celtics were looking to ship Allen out, but nothing came to fruition and instead the Celtics only move was a trade with the Knicks for Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry.  In return the Celtics shipped out Eddie House, J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker.  

Needless to say few people are expecting this move to lift the Celtics back into championship contention.  Maybe more disconcerting is the lack of support this trade has received among Celtics players and head coach Doc Rivers.  

If I were a Celtics fan I'd be worried about a seeming lack of communication between the front office and the rest of the team in the context of this trade.  Clearly the Celtics players were fond of House who was a team leader and had a propensity for making big shots and none of them feel as if Nate Robinson was enough of an upgrade, if at all, to warrant making such a deal.  

Back to Ray Allen's expiring contract.  It strikes me as odd that the Celtics couldn't find any takers for him at the deadline, especially after seeing the what the Sacramento Kings received in return for sending Kevin Martin to the Rockets and Sergio Rodriguez to the Knicks.  For these two players the Kings received Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey hand cash considerations.

You can't tell me that if Celtics' GM Danny Ainge called up and offered Sacramento Jesus Shuttleworth's expiring contract in return for Kevin Martin and Andres Nocioni that the Kings don't make that trade.  They get rid of two lengthy and expensive contracts that they were looking to dump anyways and they get a 30 game rental of an All-Star sharpshooter, admittedly on his last legs, to space the floor for Tyreke Evans.  

For the Celtics this trade would have brought them Martin who has a career 60.0% true shooting percentage to replace Allen and provided them another experienced veteran in Nocioni who can spell Pierce and Garnett off the bench.  Granted this trade would put them virtually over the cap until at the earliest the 2011-2012 season, but you can't convince me that trade would make them contenders for another title this year.  

Instead the Celtics seem resigned to at best an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals though this seems more and more unlikely every time I watch them play.  As Cleveland moved to acquire Antawn Jamison at the deadline, the Celtics virtually stood pat and if they fall short this year it will be because they failed to make use of their assets when they had the opportunity.